Method and apparatus for real time communication system buffer size and error correction coding selection

1. An apparatus for buffering a real time input communicated over a transporting network comprising, in combination: a receiving device receiving the transported real time input, the receiving device comprising a first set of jitter buffers, and a second set of jitter buffers utilizing error correcting; a first plurality of buffers maintained in the first set of jitter buffers; a second plurality of buffers maintained in the second set of jitter buffers; a means for comparing the first plurality of buffers and the second plurality of buffers; a means for selecting a first optimal buffer from the first plurality of buffers; and a means for selecting a second optimal buffer from the second plurality of buffers, wherein either the first or the second selected optimal decoder determines the receiver buffer size and whether forward error correction is utilized.

2. A method for real time communication system buffer selection, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a stream of transported data packets by a real time receiver, the receiver comprising a buffer management device, a first plurality of jitter buffers, and a second plurality jitter buffers; evaluating the first plurality of jitter buffers; choosing a first optimal jitter buffer from the first plurality of jitter buffers, the first optimal jitter buffer having an associated conditional first optimal jitter buffer performance characteristic; evaluating the second plurality of jitter buffers; choosing a second optimal jitter buffer from the second plurality of jitter buffers, the second optimal jitter buffer having an associated conditional second optimal jitter buffer performance characteristic; comparing the associated conditional characteristics of the first optimal jitter buffer and the second optimal jitter buffer; and selecting either the first optimal jitter buffer or the second optimal jitter buffer as a preferred buffer of the receiver.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein either the first or the second plurality of jitter buffers utilize error correction coding.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of packetizing data frames into data packets at a sending device, some of the data packets containing error correction coding information; and adjusting the error correction coding information according to the selected optimal decoder.

5. The method of claim 2 further comprising the step of encoding a real time input at a sending device according to a dynamic transporting characteristic of a transporting network.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising the steps of packetizing an error correction coding parameter into a feedback packet at the receiver, and transporting the feedback packet to the sending device over a transporting network.

7. The method of claim 2 further comprising the step of forwarding a stream of buffered data packets from the preferred buffer to a decoder; and forwarding the data frames from the decoder to a calling device for play out of the forwarded data packets.

8. The method of claim 2 wherein the real time input is an audio waveform.

9. The method of claim 2 wherein the real time input is a video waveform.

10. The method of claim 2 wherein the preferred buffer is selected periodically.

11. A method for transporting an interactive real time media input over a packet network comprising the steps of: partitioning and compressing the real time media input into a plurality of frames at a digital waveform encoder; packetizing the frames into a plurality of data packets, some of the data packets packetized having error correction coding information; transporting the data packets from the digital encoder to a receiver; unpacking the data packets into the plurality of frames; arranging packet information associated with the plurality of frames within each jitter buffer of a first array of jitter buffers and each jitter buffer of a second array of jitter buffers; evaluating the first array of jitter buffers and the second array of jitter buffers according to a dynamic transporting characteristic of the network; selecting a preferred jitter buffer from either the first or the second array of jitter buffers, the preferred jitter buffer having a jitter buffer length parameter.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising the step of forwarding the unpacked frames from the preferred jitter buffer to a digital waveform decoder.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising the step of deciding which data packets will contain the error correction coding information based on the dynamic transporting characteristic.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising the step of playing out the media input.

15. The method of claim 11 , further comprising the step of selecting the dynamic characteristic from a group consisting of data packet loss, data packet delay, packet burst loss, loss auto-correlation and delay variation.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the network comprises a packet switched network.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the network comprises an interconnected switched network of Local Area Networks, Internet Protocol Networks, frame relay networks, ATM networks, and Wide Area Networks.

18. The method of claim 11 , wherein the packet information associated with the plurality of frames is a packet sequence number.